Partying clearly was the atmosphere of the final day of the festival, as about 600 people watched 15 performances throughout the day.

Chubby Carrier

Even the day’s headline performance by the band and friends of blues singer/drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, who died of a stroke in his Chicago home Friday, two days before his scheduled performance at the festival, had more the feel of a party than a funeral.

“Willie wanted us to keep going,” bassist Bob Stroger told the café audience. “The last few days have been hard. But are you ready to have some fun?”

The set’s highlight was a guest appearance by longtime Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin, who sat in on the tribute for 15 minutes. Despite wearing an oxygen tank, Sumlin played and sang three songs with intensity – leaning so far back when he played that he looked like he was going to fall off the stool on which he sat. He got standing ovations while arriving and leaving.

The rest of the Smith tribute was just as hot. Drummer Jimmi Mayes started the set by telling the crowd, “If you came here to hear jazz, you’re in the wrong place. If you came here to hear rock, you’re in the wrong place. And rap is out. But if you came here to hear the blues, you’re in the right place.”

Hubert Sumlin

Former Muddy Waters guitarist Bob Margolin joined the band, as did Eddie Taylor Jr., son of the late guitar great. Both took turns singing, as did Stroger, who stepped away from the mic at one point and sang unamplified. “It’s the blues!” he said.

During one of his turns at the mic, Margolin sang with such a furious holler that spittle flew from his mouth. He later kneeled on the stage to play.

Several times during the set, Margolin, Taylor and Smith guitarist Max Valldeneu lined up on stage to take turns on blazing riffs.

“We’re here with heavy hearts,” Margolin said. And you could tell they were truly playing the blues.

ArtsQuest Vice President of Performing Arts Patrick Brogan said the festival was a performance success, with jam sessions on Friday and Saturday lasting until 1 a.m. and each night attracting the best of who had played that day.

“So not only do you get to see their shows, but everyone on stage at the same time,” he said.

The weather also was great, and Brogan said that Saturday drew 1,500 people, virtually all of whom filled the Levitt Pavilion lawn for the set by harmonica maestro Charlie Musselwhite.

Ruthie Foster

“It looked great,” Brogan said. “Exactly what we had envisioned for a festival.”

Most of the people who were at the festival Sunday gathered on the lawn for the set by soul-folk-blues singer Ruthie Foster.

And about half that was there for Teeny Tucker, daughter of the late blues singer Tommy Tucker. Her set featured her blues hollerin’, in the style of Big Mama Thornton and Big Maybelle, on whose music she gave a workshop to kick off Sunday at the festival.

When Tucker came out on stage, she pushed away the mic stand, “somebody get rid of this, ‘cause I don’t need it.” And, indeed, she stalked the stage, mic in hand, to sing songs such as Koko Taylor’s “Voodoo Woman.”

“You’d better play it!” she told her harp player, as her guitarist whined. “Talkin’ about the blues, y’all!”

Other very good sets for the day were Guy Davis, who played chimey and slide Delta blues like Robert Johnson on 12-string guitar and banjo for about 60 people.

In the Banko Alehouse Cinemas, The Holmes Brothers played their second set of the day, starting with the gospel number “I Surrender All” – “it is Sunday, after all,” keyboardist Wendall Holmes said – before playing more traditional blues. Wendall Holmes’ grimace as he sang conveyed almost as much feeling as the music.

But the Carrier’s bayou blues/zydeco set for something more than 100 people was among the best of the day.

Teeny Tucker

His music was so infectious that 45 minutes into the set, 40 people – more than a third of the crowd – were up dancing. A few couples were doing the beach shag.

Not only was the music great, but Carrier was hypnotic on his accordion, and his washboard player danced wildly and brought four women up on stage to play his breastplate instrument.

Carrier’s music ranged from very rock of his new disc “Zydeco Junkie” to the country of Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” to “Movin’ On Up,” the theme of the 1970s TV show “The Jeffersons.”

Blues has been a Lehigh Valley favorite for years, with so many festivals in or near the area; you might think it has reached the saturation point. But there was a healthy turnout on Saturday for the second ay of the first Blast Furnace Blues Festival at Bethlehem’s SteelStacks.

Eden Brent started at noon, a time she admitted was unusual for her. “I had to eliminate half my material, since you never know who is listening,” she said. The “other half” was her rousing vocals and piano boogie woogie, backed by a six string bass and a drummer who doubled on harmonica.

Todd Wolfe did an absorbing half hour set with resonator and acoustic guitar, accompanied only by Jim Ruffi on djembe drum and occasional shaker. Wolfe included a version of Leslie West’s “Mississippi Queen” on his largely slide based blues playing.

The super high energy Homemade Jamz was a surprise hit. This band is the Perry family, with 19- year old Ryan on guitar and vocals, 17-year-old Kyle on six string bass, 12-year-old Taya on drums, and their father Renaud on harmonica. The guitar and bass looked homemade, shaped like car mufflers with interior lights that flashed when they walked through the crowd. Taya was announced as the youngest professional female drummer. She was a strong and accomplished presence without any concessions for her age.

Charlie Musselwhite looks his 67 years, but his voice and harmonica work are as strong as ever. He did upbeat tunes like “Shake Your Moneymaker” and “Big Legged Woman,” and others about loss and dislocation, like “Stranger in a Strange Land,” about the first time he came to Chicago.

Musselwhite went for tone over speed on his harp, leaving the pyrotechnics to his young guitarist Matt Stubbs. His own playing mixed in many varied sounds from his various harps.

There were a lot of soulful female vocals, from both the Donovan Roberts duo and the BC Combo. Both Lori Donovan and Bev Conklin gave soulful renditions of blues and other numbers that included a Tom Petty cover (Donovan) and soul from Conklin.

Dana Fuchs was somewhat reminiscent of Janis Joplin, as she belted out her originals that hit the audience like a hurricane, with a message that invited them to join the “church of joy” that she created onstage.

Bernard Allison has moved the blues forward from the tradition of his father Luther. With Jose Ned James on sax and percussion and Toby Marshall on keyboards, Allison added jazz and soul elements to his sound. He included a medley that included the Jackson Five, “Smoke on the Water,” and ZZ Top’s “La Grange,” and ended with a moving “Lie To Me.”

Buckwheat Zydeco is, of course, more Zydeco than blues, but just as rocking. His set included a sing along of Hank Williams’ “Hey Good Looking” and an interval when he put down his piano accordion to play some jazz based Hammond B3.

Day 3 of the festival has just begun and continues till 11. Another dozen acts are on stage inside and outside at SteelStacks, including Guy Davis, Ruthie Foster, The Holmes Brothes and JJ Grey and Mofro. The Chicago Blues All Stars is at 7 in Musikfest Cafe and will go on without Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, who died on Friday in Chicago. Playing it up in his honor will be Smith's band, along with Hubert Sumlin, Bob Stroger and Bob Margolin.

You can see all of these acts for just one admission price of $35. That's a deal. More info at www.artsquest.org.

I recently wrote about some upcoming shows at Musikfest Café at SteelStacks that seem to be broadening the scope of acts that play there, including teen band Hot Chelle Rae, which this summer had the big hit “Tonight, Tonight.”

Mat Kearney Good every time I've seen him

That’s a show to which I’m looking forward, not only because it will represent a different kind of act for Musikfest Café, but because Hot Chelle Rae is pretty good. Its supporting set for Big Time Rush at Allentown Fair was entertaining and fun.

But that isn’t the only show I’m looking forward to this fall.

In fact, amidst the busy music season of Musikfest and Allentown Fair, and now the festivals at SteelStacks, a few shows have been announced for the Lehigh Valley area that I haven’t had a chance to note, but that I’m anxious to see.

Let’s catch up.

Perhaps the area show I’m most interested in is Owl City at Allentown’s Crocodile Rock Café on Nov. 12. I saw his show with Mat Kearney at The Mann Center in Philadelphia on June 25, and it was great: relentlessly uplifting and unflaggingly optimistic, with lyrics that were witty, interesting, touching and intelligent, and conveyed a real message – something rarely found in virtually any form of music today.And the music just sounded important. Maybe that’s because Owl City, backed by a five-person band, gave an intense and energetic performance, to boot. It’s in the running for my favorite show this year.

Kearney’s also coming to Croc Rock, on Oct. 27. He, too, was great at The Mann, as he always is. And he’s far different, and far better, from most musical acts out there, and deserves to be a far bigger hit. He’s got a stellar new album, “

Also coming to Croc Rock are Plain White T’s, just three days before Kearney on Oct. 24. They’ve also been great every time I’ve seen them. I haven’t seen them since the release of their newest disc, “Wonders of the Younger,” with the hit “Rhythm of Love,” their biggest since “Hey There Delilah” in 2007.

Other interesting shows coming up at Croc Rock are country singer Chris Young, who won USA Network’s “Country Star” competition in 2006 and had the big hit “Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song)’ in 2009. He’ll be there Nov. 5. And Drake Bell from the Nickelodeon TV show “Drake & Josh” on Oct. 28. And Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man on Nov. 22.

Up at Penn’s Peak near Jim Thorpe, the big news you may have missed is that Willie Nelson & Family is coming Oct. 30. Nelson was great opening the sold out Bob Dylan show at Allentown’s Coca-Cola Park in 2009. Gordon Lightfoot on Oct. 2 also promises to be a great show. Attention 1980s radio rock fans: REO Speedwagon is there Nov. 10 and, in a show we have talked about, country icon Loretta Lynn is there Oct. 14.

A great show coming up at Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg is pop-punkers All Time Low, The Ready Set and He Is We on Oct. 26. All Time Low has sold out Croc Rock, and their 2009 song “Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don't)" is flat-out great. This year’s “I Feel Like Dancin’” is pretty good, too. The fact that The Ready Set, who headlined thus year’s B104 Night at Allentown’s Mayfair festival, and He Is We, whose song “Happily Ever After” is great, impressed me at both Croc Rock and West Chester’s The Note. To have them all on the same show makes it a can’t miss.

Arlo Guthrie at The Sherman on Nov. 4 is pretty interesting, too.

Allentown Symphony Hall has been a real surprise with the shows coming up there. The best is Americana alt/folk-country singer Lucinda Williams on Oct. 28. She’s worth seeing anytime she plays. Buddy Guy there on Nov. 6 also is a guaranteed great night.

Alt-rockers The Pixies on Nov. 3 and seminal rocker Chuck Berry on Nov. 5 at The State Theatre in Easton are pretty amazing, too.

Back at Musikfest Café, there are a bunch of other shows coming up that are worth seeing besides Hot Chelle Rae.

Wilson Phillips, the 1990s girl group who had the hit “Hold On,” is one to which I’m particularly looking forward.

The Badlees at Mauch Chunk Opera House on Oct. 21 and Bruce Cockburn at Sellersville Theater 1894 on Sept. 28 are pretty interesting shows.

And Listen Live Music in Old Zionsville has Kim Richey on Sept. 24.

That’s 20 shows and doesn’t even include venues just outside the Lehigh Valley, such as Mount Airy Casino’s Gypsies Lounge, which has ‘80s band Flock of Seagulls on Nov. 12 and Crystal Gale on Dec. 10.

Or Reading’s Sovereign Center, which has Diana Ross on Oct. 1, Jackson Brown solo on Oct. 11 and John Mellencamp on Oct. 11.

Truth be told, the Mellencamp show may be the one to which I’m most looking forward. His Feb. 21 show at Philadelphia Academy of Music is my favorite show this year.

The opening night of the new Blast Furnace Blues Festival at SteelStacks was just that – a blast.

Never before has Musikfest Café looked more like its intended vision: With Eddie Shaw and The Wolf Gang on stage, it became a smoky old-time Chicago blues club.

Eddie Shaw, right, at Musikfet Cafe

Filled with perhaps 400 people, and filled with smoke (OK, maybe it was stage smoke, but still …), the lights low and (electric) candles on the tables, the café was electric. Shaw, in a white captain’s hat, was hollerin’ out blues vocals as his crack band shuffled along, its playing startlingly authentic.

There also will be a Chicago blues all-star session that was to have featured Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, who died of a stroke Friday. That show, which still will feature Hubert Sumlin at 7 p.m., should be a great tribute to Smith.

Tickets are still available.

It wasn’t only Shaw that made Friday night so good.

At the outdoors Levitt Pavilion, 100 or so people watched Cedric Burnside play great electric blues with just his drums and a guitarist.

Cedric Burnside

The weather was decidedly chilly: Wither temperatures dipping into the 50s, I was comfortable in a fleece jacket over a sweater. Others also wore jackets.

The flaming sculpture on the Town Square outside ArtsQuest Center was more attractive than usual because it provided extra heat. Even ArtsQuest President Jeff Parks was hovering near it.

Later, in the smaller of SteelStacks’ two cinemas, Mike Dugan & The Blues Mission played as 100 or so more people watched. What a cool concert space: With the guaranteed most comfortable seats in the house and stadium-seat clarity of view, it was the best place to relax to hear music.

But there still were a few open seats as some people preferred to stand and move slightly to the music. Not that people in their seats weren’t moving, too.

Once again, one of the delights for the listener – though almost certainly not for ArtsQuest – were the small crowds, likely something around 600. Even in the full Musikfest Café for Shaw, it wasn’t hard to find a space to listen – and move.

Shaw, 74, surrounded by a guitarist on a triple-neck ax, bassist and drummer, wailed on the sax. Then he stood up, a white towel on his shoulder, and spoke like a preacher of the Mississippi Delta blues scene that spawned him and so many other greats.

“We’d like to go back there if that’s OK with you,” Shaw told the crowd. “We’d like to go home right now.”

It was tragedy that brought prototypical pop-punk band blink-182 back together from a four-year break-up, when drummer Travis Barker was badly injured in a 2008 plane crash and members put aside their differences to rally around him.

blink-182 (from left) Travis Barker, Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus

But it has been technology that has kept the band together since, and has helped it move forward — both personally and in its music, its members say.

Songs released so far from “Neighborhoods,” due out Sept. 27 — the band’s first disc in eight years — are departures from blink’s signature sound: ambitious and expansive, with obvious modern mechanization.

The way those songs were recorded has the band feeling comfortable about continuing.

When the band broke up in 2005, it was because frontman Tom DeLonge wanted to take time off from touring and recording to spend more time with wife and then-newborn daughter. (He and his wife have since also had a son).

Since then, technology has advanced to where band members say they were rarely in the studio together for the new disc. Instead, they say in a recent phone interview, they worked in separate studios and exchanged their work electronically while tending to home life instead of being holed up, waiting impatiently for each other to finish their work.

The break deprived fans of new music from the band, which from 1999-2004 produced 10 Top 10 alternative rock hits such as “What’s My Age Again?,” “All The Small Things,” “The Rock Show” and “I Miss You,” sold 9 million albums and live shows such as one in 2001 that drew nearly 12,000 people to Allentown Fair’s largest concert crowd in the past 16 years.

But the hiatus also gave the band the chance to advance musically, DeLonge says.

He formed the band Angels & Airwaves, a techno-rock band that released two albums that both hit the Top 10, as well as a third available only as a free digital download. Bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker formed +44, an alt-electronic band whose only disc also went Top 10. It was working on a second when Barker was injured.

The band now is on a tour to promote the new disc, and DeLonge and Hoppes recently sat down for a telephone news conference in advance of its show today (Sept. 17) at Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J. Here is an edited transcript of the call:

With all the side projects, Travis has you know his solo stuff, Mark has a TV show and now he’s moving to London, Tom with Angels & Airwaves, would it be safe to say that Blink is a side project now? Or is it still considered a priority?

Mark Hoppus: “ It’s not a side project at all. Blink is our priority as a band as people – it’s what we’ve done since day 1 for almost 20 years at this point. The other projects that we have in our lives allow us to kind of break away and do something creative and bring that knowledge and those skills back to Blink as a band. But Blink is no side project by any means.” (Continues)

Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, the Grammy Award-winning, longtime drummer with the Muddy Waters Band who was scheduled to appear for an all-star jam Sunday at ArtsQuest’s Blast Furnace Blues festival, died from a stroke Friday morning in his Chicago home, according to a notice posted on his website. He was 75.

Smith was scheduled to play with blues guitar icon Hubert Sumlin, bassist Bob Stroger, Bob Margolin and The Chicago All Stars at 7 p.m. Sunday as the festival’s closing set in Musikfest Café.

Willie "Big Eyes" Smith

ArtsQuest Vice President of performing Arts Patrick Brogan said Friday the show will continue as scheduled with Smith’s band and Sumlin, Stroger and Margolin.

“The entire rest of the lineup will be here,” Brogan said. “And they are going to play it up in his honor . I think it’s going to be a very special show.”

In addition to playing the drums, Smith was an accomplished vocalist and guitarist. But it was in 1961, when he joined Waters’ band, that solidified his place in blues history.

In 1980, he and other members of Waters’ band formed The Legendary Blues Band, and recorded six albums through 1993. He recorded his first solo disc, “Bag Full of Blues,” in 1995, and this year won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album for “Joined at the Hip” with Pinetop Perkins.

“Smith was a great, versatile Chicago bluesman who had a dynamic career as a vocalist, harmonica player and drummer,” Neil Portnow, president of The Recording Academy, which awards the Grammys, said in a statement.

“The music he created made an indelible impact on the genre, playing alongside other great blues artists including Pinetop Perkins, with whom he won his Grammy Award for ‘Joined At The Hip’ at this year's 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. Our sincerest condolences extend to his family, friends, fans, and all who will continue to appreciate his rhythm and riffs for generations to come.”

When blues harmonica maestro Charlie Musselwhite decided as a teenager in Memphis, Tenn., that he wanted to learn the blues, there was only one way to do it: He sought out those who played it.

And Musselwhite was fortunate enough to learn from the seminal blues masters. Traveling to Chicago, he played with Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Big Walter Horton and others.

In doing so, he became one of the iconic blues harp players of our time.

Through 20 albums from his 1966 debut “Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band” — still an iconic work bridging blues and rock and roll — to his most recent, 2010’s Blues Music Award-winning “The Well,” Musselwhite’s playing has stood out as a standard of the genre.

Charlie Musselwhite

“Blues, especially, was like a secret society or something,” Musselwhite says in a recent telephone interview in advance of his show Sept. 17 at the inaugural Blast Furnace Blues Festival at SteelStacks.

“There were no books or anything to learn how to play blues. Even to read about blues, I remember in some books on jazz there might be a little short chapter about blues, but it was hardly anything.”

Today, Musselwhite, 67, says, there’s plenty of information available on how to play the blues. “But it’s all on CDs and DVDs and in books, which is not the same as learning it from the guys themselves. And unfortunately, they’re no longer here.”

Musselwhite says that’s resulted in true blues being diluted.

“A lot of people who call themselves blues players today never would have said that in the past,” he says. “It was much more narrowly defined in the past. But now it’s more people who say they play blues, but, well, it doesn’t sound like blues to me.

“You can play all those notes and play the 1-4-5 chord change and announce you’re playing blues, when, in fact, that’s not really what blues it about. It’s about a feeling. And if that’s not there, all those notes and those chord changes ain’t gonna make it blues.

“John Lee Hooker played almost all his tunes in one key. He never even made any chord changes. … A lot of people are so technique-bound it’s like it’s all about how fast they can play or how loud they can play. As if that means something,” he says, laughing again.

“It doesn’t mean anything. It just means that – fast an loud. They have nothing to say. It’s like somebody with a huge vocabulary and knows all these words, but has nothing to say. A lot of music today sounds that way to me.”

Musselwhite continues to show what true blues are. After 14 W. C. Handy Awards for blues music, six Grammy nominations and a 2010 induction into the Blues Hall of Fame, Musselwhite is getting some of the best notice of his career for “The Well.”

It’s a largely autobiographical disc on which, for the first time on a full-band album, he wrote every song. The title track, for example, tell of his conquering alcoholism after connecting emotionally with baby Jessica, the little girl who was trapped in a well in Texas in 1987 and promising he wouldn’t drink until she was saved. After she was, he never drank again, Musselwhite says.

“You just never know what’s going to get to you,” he says. “At that point, I really wanted to quit, and I just couldn’t find that key for the last hurdle, and that was it – the passion for her situation.”

Musselwhite says he has aimed to keep the real blues alive in popular music. He played Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning “Longing in Their Hearts” and on other albums by Tom Waits and, most recently, Cyndi Lauper’s 2010 disc “Memphis Blues.”

He says he and Lauper will start touring together in October, playing not only songs from that album, but “blues-ed up” versions of her hits, as well.

“So now ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ has a harmonica solo,” he says with a laugh. “That’s really challenging and a real fun way for me to be able to step out of the straight-ahead blues and take something that’s not really thought of as blues and add some blues to it.”

He says he’s open to playing the same role teaching new artists the blues as the masters taught him.

“There are some of us still playing; I’d be one of them,” he says with a laugh. “And I try to be supportive to anybody that’s interested in learning and tell them what I know and when I have the opportunity, to share with them my experiences with the music.

“And I hope it benefits them. Because blues is more than just music. It’s a whole attitude.”

“American Idol" has added an audition session Sept. 22 at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., where it has held auditions the past two years.

In 2010, at least two Lehigh Valley residents — Kim Bydlon, 17, and Tim Harakal, 24, both of Whitehall Township —were among about 200 to move on to the next round out of 17,000 who showed up for the auditions. There were at least 18 audtioners from the Lehigh Valley.

Both were eliminated in second-round tryouts.

If you are from the general Lehigh Valley area and are going to audition, please contact me at johnjmoser@gmail.com or 610-820-6722 with your name and a telephone number to reach you. I'm interested in doing a story on the auditions.

The IZOD auditions will be the last stop on the nationwide search for the show’s Season 11. Auditions already were held in St. Louis; Portland, Ore.; San Diego; Pittsburgh; Charleston; Denver and Houston.

Season 11 will debut 10-11 p.m. Jan. 22 on Fox-TV.

Men and women ages 15-28 years old as of June 26, who are eligible to work in the United States are eligible for the auditions.

After registering at the website, people who want to audition must pick up a wristband between 7 a.m. Sept. 20 and 5 a.m. Sept. 22. But those who sign up on the day of the auditions to register can’t be promised the show won’t run out of space or time to accommodate you. Registration does not guarantee you the opportunity to audition.

Auditioners will not be permitted to camp out. Once auditioners get a wristband, they will be asked to return to IZOD Center by 5 a.m. Sept. 22.

Auditioners must have two forms of ID that show proof of your age and a photograph (for example, a birth certificate and driver's license or a birth certificate and a passport or a birth certificate and a school ID card) to get a wristband.

You will be allowed to have one person accompany you to the audition, but that person must be present during registration so they also can get a wristband. No one under age 5 will be allowed at the auditions.

Anyone under 18 on the day you register must have a parent or legal guardian with you during registration.

If Alzheimer’s disease is, as First Lady Nancy Reagan put it in describing her husband, the long goodbye, Glen Campbell said farewell with the equivalent of a warm embrace Thursday with a concert at the University of Pennsylvania’s Irving Auditorium.

Not exactly the robust hug he might have given at his peak, but a hint of greatness wrapped with the best of what remains of his talent and a sharing of memories with his audience.

Glen Campbell in Philadelphia on ThursdayPhotos by Brian Hineline/Special to The Morning Call

In a 70-minute set of 18 songs, he at times flashed brilliance – even diminished, both his vocals and guitar playing were sometimes stunningly good – and at other times was obviously confused.

When that happened, his band – which included three of his children and his longtime band leader – would start the music and bring him what seemed to give most clarity: performing.

The audience of about 1,000 was similarly supportive. They gave him a standing ovation as he walked on stage – among four he would ultimately get – seemed supportive when he flubbed and joined the laugh when he jovially used humor to smooth his rough spots.

And there were a few rough spots. Even on the opening “Gentle on My Mind,” he missed a lyric that through the night were provided by prompters on the stage floor, and jokingly kicked at it.

“I’m happy to be here,” the 75-year-old Campbell told the crowd. “When you’re my age, you’re happy to be anywhere.” Over the concert, he several times repeated the line, “I’m happy to be here.”

Campbell with daughter Ashley

But “Gentle on My Mind” and “Galveston,” the song that followed, also showed how great Campbell could be. He played guitar solos that not only were intricate, but inspired; not only intuitive, but purposefully phrased. “I’m going to play for you,” he said, and the crowd cheered. Through the night, he played a half-dozen such solos.

He brought his daughter Ashley, very good on banjo, to center stage for a duet on “Dueling Banjos,” which was tear-inducing touching, as he played behind his head and the crowd clapped along.

His singing often was just as great. “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” was as lovely as you remember. He was strong, and even animated, on “Ghost on the Canvas,” the title track of his new (and announced last) album.

And he was flat-out chill-inducing on Conway Twitty’s “It’s Only Make Believe,” before which he did a spot-on Elvis impersonation. It, too, got a huge cheer.

The middle of the concert seemed rougher for Campbell. “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife,” such a wonderful song, seemed ready to unravel until he rescued it at the end with a high note that, again, won applause. He lost his place on the new “Any Trouble” and looked confused on “Where’s the Playground Susie.”

And he became incoherent talking about John Wayne on the movie “True Grit” before singing its title tune.

“I get tongue-tied talking about things like that,” he said, and again rescued himself with impressive guitar work.

“You don’t want to be perfect,” he said. “Then they’ll expect that every time.”

But, as likely was the plan, he regained his stride as the show closed with some of his biggest hits: a jaunty and forceful “Southern Nights,” with the crowd clapping along, an extremely well-sung “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress” with just him backed by keyboard.

“Wichita Lineman,” which the crowd greeted with applause, was heartbreaking, with a melancholy guitar solo and a stirring vocal coda that got another one of those standing ovations. So did “Rhinestone Cowboy,” which closed the main set.

The specter of Campbell’s illness hung over the night. The audience clearly watched for signs of it, and when Campbell would sing a poignant lyric, it would strike hard, from Galveston’s “I am so afraid of dying” to “And then the darkness fell” in “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress.“

But the encore of the new “A Better Place” clearly placed with its lyrics in mind. As touching as it was musically, its words told Campbell’s story: “This world’s been good to me/A better place awaits, you’ll see.”

On Wednesday night at the Musikfest Café, he got down and funky. But he covered all the blues bases – also serving up lots of ballads and more traditional Delta blues from his numerous albums.

The concert was the longest of any that I have attended at the SteelStacks venue – a solid two hours – and one of the most fun. Keb makes you smile. He’s got an easy, humorous, sexy way about him – a natural frontman without the razzle dazzle. He and his five-member band gave the nearly sellout crowd a night of great music that brought the audience to its feet – first some of the ladies, later everyone -- dancing and begging for more.

Keb took the stage alone – tall and lean and grinning. He performed a short love song – “Tell Everybody I Know” -- joking that a guy paid him $5 to play it. “I wanted $10. He said $5.” After the song he laughed, “I shoulda got $20.”

It set the stage for a night of songs with an emphasis on the ups and downs and gives and takes of relationships and life and romance.

The band joined him and he launched into a funky and very cool cover of The Eagles’ “One of These Nights,” featuring Keb on an electric guitar solo. It’s track from his new album, “The Reflection,” which indeed has Keb on a musical path with more emphasis on pop, R&B and funk. He followed with an even funkier song, “Government Cheese,” from his previous album, “Live & Mo.’ “

Keb brought his harmonica out for a couple songs, including the upbeat “Muddy Water, “ with its leading line, “I love Muddy Water and I’m ready for the blues tonight.”

He slowed down the tempo a bit for an older hit -- “Perpetual Love Machine,” which he reset for “Reflection.” It had an almost doo wop feel.

Keb went from new to old and back again.

He was in the groove on “his first single from the new album, “Whole Enchilada,” and for his melodic hit “More than One Way Home,” from his sophomore effort, “Just Like You.”

He played the kind of old fashioned “I See Love,” with its catchy chorus “La La ba dee dah,” explaining that most folks only know the ending, which is used as the theme song for the TV sitcom “Mike & Molly.” Another fun song, “Shave Yo’ Legs,” reveals Keb’s simple take on love. His “I’m in a Dangerous Mood” had women swooning.

Really nice ballads included the heartfelt “Closer” and “We Don’t Need It.” Keb sat down with his acoustic guitar for “City Boy” and “I’ll Be Your Water,” and actually apologized before beginning them, saying he was aware of the “energy in the room,” which had had women boogeying.

He ended the main set with the upbeat “The Door,” and in a fun twist handed the spotlight to several talented band members, who took turns singing their hearts out on the chorus, with its catchy phrase, “I found out that the door was always open.

A four-song encore covered all the tempo bases as well, with the funky “Inside Outside” and “Just Lookin’ “, the soulful “She Just Wants to Dance” and the straight blues closer “Am I Wrong?”

Keb didn’t talk a whole lot during the show, but when he did it was funny and endearing.

“I ain’t never been in no place like this. This is really, really special,” he remarked about the Musikfest Café with its dramatic backdrop of the Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces. “There’s some well dressed people here. I’m gonna have to go out and buy me an iron or something,” he remarked later.

And he proved he meant what he said about appreciating the gig and his fan, shaking hands at the front of the stage at the end of the show and signing CDs later.

It was a real treat having the popular bluesman, who has played much larger venues, in the intimate space of the Musikfest Cafe. .

ArtsQuest, the nonprofit organization that runs the SteelStacks entertainment campus in South Bethlehem, on Wednesday announced some new shows at its Musikfest Cafe, and there are some that may signal shifts in the venue’s philosophy.

Hot Chelle Rae at Allentown Fair

Perhaps the most interesting is an Oct. 19 show by Hot Chelle Rae, the teen pop band whose song “Tonight Tonight” recently hit the Top 5 and who was pretty entertaining opening for Big Time Rush at Allentown Fair on Sept. 4. They also opened for Selena Gomez at Musikfest in 2010.

That show, nearly six months after Musifest Café’s opening, will be it first foray into the teen market, and for the first time puts it in direct competition with Allentown’s Crocodile Rock Café, which has done well over the years booking teen acts on the way up, such as The Jonas Brothers, Dreamsteet, Ryan Cabrera, David Archuletta and others.

Like Croc Rock, the Café will present the show as a standing-only event (except for balcony seats), meaning it will be able to fit just over 1,000 (as compared with 1,300 for Croc Rock).

It’s a smart move by Musikfest Café. There demand for that market (and with $15 tickets, it’s priced very friendly). Musikfest Café’s only sold-out show so far was by jam band moe. on July 17, and a later show by pop-punkers Relient K also did well. While those bands’ audience skews just a little older – college and young adult – it’s still far younger than the average Musikfest Café show.

While Musikfest Cafe has had its share of good audiences with acts aimed at older crowds, its typical audience falls far below sellouts.

Such shows also open younger people’s awareness of the venue, giving them the chance to bond with the place, establish good memories and cultivates them as customers later in life.

The other interesting show is Sarah Ayers and Friends on Dec. 17. The show is unusual in that it offers a strictly local bill rather than a national touring act. The idea was used back at the café’s first public show on May 1, when it hosted area blues guitarist Craig Thatcher and friends.

That show drew more than 400 people for the café seating arrangement, which accommodates just over 500. True, the crowd may have been bolstered by the fact it was the venue’s first night, but the multi-act local bill also is a technique used not only by Crocodile Rock (which does it with multiple area rock bands) but World Café Live in Philadelphia, after which Musikfest Café is largely modeled.

The idea is that each of the acts on the bill has its own fans, and by offering them together, you not only build a guaranteed audience, but cross-pollinate the fans for later shows.

Tickets for that show, at $15 for cabaret and $20 for balcony, also are customer friendly.

A third show that’s more unusual will be the theatrical show “Tony n' Tina's Wedding,” in which audience members play the roles of Tony n' Tina's family and/or friends. During the performance, audience members are invited to eat, drink, dance, converse and let themselves be caught up in the activities.

The show will play eight performances Jan. 17-22, and while the ticket price is steep -- $55-$75 – it includes entertainment, a pasta dinner and wedding cake.

Finally, another show may signal yet another shift – a Dec. 30 performance by Jimmy & The Parrots, a Jimmy Buffet tribute band that has played Musikfest and other area venues.

It will be the third tribute act I can think of being booked at Musikfest Café – an early show by Pink Floyd tribute band The Machine and Start Making Sense, a Talking Heads cover band to play there on Dec. 31.

In general, I avoid tribute bands. In general, they’re over-priced cover bands that you should be paying bar-cover charges to see. I make exceptions for bands that play tributes to acts that no longer exist – The Machine and Start Making Sense qualify. But Jimmy Buffet still tours. Why pay to see a tribute when you can see the real thing?

Having said that, I know people flock to these shows, and tickets for Jimmy & The Parrots are just $10, the equivalent of a high cover charge at a bar. I just hope Musikfest Café doesn’t cheapen itself by booking such shows frequently.

Tickets for the new shows go on sale at 10 a.m. Sept. 20 to ArtsQuest Members and 10 a.m. Sept. 23 to the public at www.artsquest.org or 610-332-3378.

The Who last played together in March 2010, when it performed the rock opera “Quadrophenia” at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The group last played in the United States at the Super Bowl a month earlier and the band hasn’t toured since 2007.

So when founding member Roger Daltrey is out on the road, it’s a must-see, especially when he’s performing the group’s rock opera “Tommy” from start to finish. He’ll sing all the songs in sequence, which the group has never done.

Daltrey also will perform a variety of Who classics. His band includes Simon Townshend, younger brother of The Who guitarist Pete Townshend.

Simply put, Marshall Crenshaw’s early 1980s hits, such as “Someday Someway” and “Whenever You’re On My Mind,” were perfect pop — wonderful melodies with hooks and piercing lyrics, performed joyously. Why he never became one of music’s biggest acts still puzzles 30 years later.

The anniversary of his first single, “Something's Going to Happen,” gives Crenshaw a reason to go back on the road with a full band — The Bottle Rockets — after recently performing solo acoustic shows. A 2009 solo show at Sellersville Theater was among my Top 10 small-venue shows of 2009.

The occasion gives listeners another reason to wonder why he’s still not bigger than he is.

It should have been a sign that folk rockers The Avett Brothers were something extraordinary when the band sold out a show at Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center during Musikfest 2010.

But when the group shared the stage with Bob Dylan and Mumford & Sons at the Grammy Awards in February it told the rest of the world what that Zoellner crowd knew. The Avett Brothers’ incredible energy combining bluegrass, country, punk, pop melodies, folk, rock ’n’ roll, honky tonk and ragtime is something special.

The San Francisco Chronicle described the band as having the “heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the light pop concision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the Beatles, the raw energy of The Ramones.”

New wave snyth-pop group Human League’s run at the top of the American charts in the 1980s was deceptively long.

Human League

Far from being one-hit wonders (although 1981’s “Don’t You Want Me” is their runaway biggest hit), they charted six Top 30 songs from 1981-95. They include the 1986 No. 1 hit “Human,” the Top 10 “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” and even later song such as 1990’s “Heart Like a Wheel” and 1995’s “Tell Me When.”

The group has continued to chart in the United Kingdom through 2001, and even to this day has kept the three-person lineup from its heyday. A new album, “Credo,” was released in the United States three weeks ago.

Men Without Hats, on the other hand, was indeed a one-hit wonder, with 1983’s “The Safety Dance.” But what a song: It hit No. 3 in the U.S., and No. 1 on the dance charts.

The Zombies might have been just another of the myriad of British Invasion groups that came to America in the early 1960s were it not for a distinctive ominous sound that punctuated such hits as “She’s Not There” and “Time of the Season” and later gave way to psychedelic music.

The Zombies

The band split up in 1968, but 23 years later, lead vocalist Colin Blunstone reformed the group without keyboardist Rod Argent for a one-off tour, then again in 1997 for a tour with him. Finally, in 2001, the band reformed for good and now has been together for the longest run in its history.

It makes sense, then, that the band is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding with “Breathe Out, Breathe In,” it’s first album in seven years and just its third in 43 years.

The Strawbs came out of the early days of the British folk movement, formed by David Cousins and Tony Hooper as Strawberry Hill Boys (later shortened to the Strawbs) to play bluegrass.

Later, their music became more complex and compared more to the Moody Blues, King Crimson and Pink Floyd. On this tour, they will play acoustic, but definitely not unplugged, sifting through 40 years worth of music.

The weather forecast says the festival will have sunny skies all three days, with decidedly cooler temperatures of high 60s during the days and perhaps dipping into the 40s at night.

But if it rains, as it did for ArtsQuest’s SteelJam jam music festival two weeks ago, the organization plans to move all of the shows inside the ArtsQuest Center, ArtsQuest Vice President of Performing Arts Patrick Brogan says.

“In case of inclement weather, everything comes inside,” Brogan said.

He said ArtsQuest discovered with SteelJam that crowds for festival headliners likely will fit in the 1,017-standing-room capacity Musikfest Café, and other acts in the Creativity Commons, Fowler Blast Furnace Room and two Banko Alehouse Cinemas.

“We have the facilities,” Brogan said. “If we fear the day is a washout, we’ll make it happen in here.”

To entice people to the festival, ArtsQuest will have a coupon for $5 off a single-day admission on Page 28 of Thursday’s Go Guide. It will be redeemable at the box office.

Tickets are $25 at the gate Friday and $35 at the gate on Saturday and Sunday.

There also will be blues-themed food such as barbeque. Even the free weekly Peas & Q’s activity for kids fits into the theme — a screening of “The Princess and the Frog” Disney movie, with its bayou-themed music.

The promoter who brought country duo Big & Rich to Allentown’s Coca-Cola Park a month ago says the show not only was profitable, but was successful enough to prompt it to plan other area shows – perhaps as many as six at the stadium next year.

The stage in Coca-Cola Park for Big & Rich

And New Castle Entertainment spokesman Tim Crockett said the promoter also is looking at shows for other Lehigh Valley venues, including a show – “not a musical act,” Crockett said – that could be announced this week.

The Big & Rich show sold 5,920 tickets on Aug. 19 in just the second concert ever at Coca-Cola Park and the first since Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp sold out the 11,000-capacity park in July 2009.

“It went really well,” Crockett said. “I think people genuinely had a great time. I loved it and I’m glad everybody liked it.”

Crockett said the show was profitable, even after Newcastle bought some of the equipment for the concert. That spending will make future shows less expensive, he said. He said the promoters also had ancillary deals with Coca-Cola Park, which he declined to detail, that generated revenue.

“Financially we did fine,” Crockett said.

When the Big & Rich show was announced in June, New Castle and park officials said another concert was expected to be announced in a month.

It’s now three months later, and Crockett said New Castle -- based in Delaware and California -- still is considering another concert at the park this year. But with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs baseball team making the playoffs, finding an open date might be difficult.

“We’re debating, but we’re up against weather and up against time for this year,” Crockett said. “Do we try to push something in?”

More likely is four to six shows there next year, he said.

“That’s kind of the plan,” he said.

IronPigs General Manager Kurt Landes said in June that he hoped to have several concerts a year at the park.

"We were very happy with the concert and we are looking forward to working with Tim to bring in more concerts in the future," Landes said today in an e-mail from Columbus, Ohio, where the IronPigs were playing in the league championship.

"I know we'll be sitting down to discuss future concerts together after our season concludes. We have received fantastic feedback from our fans about how great the ballpark is for outdoor concerts."

Crockett said he’s had a “walk through” and meetings with Lehigh University's Stabler Arena and other outdoor venues in the Valley for other concerts next year.

“We’re trying to create things that have never been done,” Crockett said. He said he hopes to also bring acts that haven’t performed in the area.

He said the act that may be announced soon is “not a musical act, but it’s very entertaining.” It will be an indoor event in late November, he said.

The other is event would be a band, Crockett said.

New Castle’s goal would be to make any shows it does affordable, with tickets in the $35 to $45 range.

“I know the biggest positive we heard [about Big & Rich) was the pricing was in line,” Crockett said.

As Allentown’s Mayfair festival moves forward after breaking ties with its executive director, it wants public input on what attendees would like to see in the festival, a city official who’s also on the Mayfair board says.

Tara Craig, Allentown’s special events manager, who is a member of Mayfair’s 11-member board of directors, said it was the board’s dissatisfaction with the festival that led it to split with Terry Glennon, the festival’s executive director for six years.

She called the separation a personnel issue that she could not discuss.

The separation came to light last week when Faith Evangelical Free Church of Trexlertown, which was to host Mayfair’s attempt to revive the popular FallOut Christian music festival Sept. 24, announced the festival had been canceled

But Craig said that not only is the board proceeding with the expectation the festival will continue, but “one of the things we want to do with this festival is tie it in with the 250th anniversary” of Allentown next year.

At this point, the board is exploring what the festival should be, and is looking for community input, Craig said.

“We’re looking for suggestions that people have,” Craig said. “This is a community festival, and we want to get back to that. At this time, we would want to hear from the community what they’re looking for.

“I don’t know whether it will go back to what it was, but will take a new direction,” Craig said. “We’ll be focusing on the quality of the festival.”

Craig said it’s unlikely Mayfair will reverse its controversial 2005 decision to put a chain link fence around the festival, which is held in Allentown’s Cedar Beach for five days over the Memorial Day weekend, and charge $5-per-person admission.

“I don’t know that’s something that we can do at this point; that’s a significant amount of revenue for us,” Craig said.

But “we want people to feel satisfied they’re getting what they paid for – expanded entertainment, bigger and better kids space,” Craig said. She said she’s heard people want more artisans at the festival but Craig said not as many travel to do festivals now that they can take orders online.

“We want to figure out how to give people what they want but make sure we’re financially secure. Getting back to our roots, but looking at new operations so that we can continue to keep the festival fresh.”

Among the ideas at which the board is looking is adding shows at Allentown’s Union Terrace Park, as it did in its early years. “That’s not totally new, but that would kind of breath some new life into it, a well,” Craig said. Charging for some of the top concerts also is a consideration, she said.

“We’re exited but we’re still very open to what Mayfair will look like next year,” Craig said.

She said the festival “definitely” is looking at filling the executive director job left open by Glennon, but the board wants “to find out where we are as an organization before we bring someone in. The festival needs to have a strong board and vision.

“That process is happening, but we can’t announce anything at this point,” Craig said.

Glennon, a former project manager for AT&T in Bedminster, N.J., with no professional experience with the arts, was hired three months before the 2006 festival.

Under Glennon, the festival had gone from being $260,000 in debt -- organizers held a news conference in late 2005 to say the festival was unlikely to have a 20th year -- to being $15,000 in debt and anticipating being debt free after this year.

Glennon has not responded to telephone messages left for him seeking comment.

So what suggestions do you have for Mayfair? What would you like to see at the festival?

Bethlehem native Thom Schuyler has had some tremendous achievements in country music since he left the area for Nashville after graduating from Liberty High School in 1970.

As a recording artist, his band S-K-O charted seven singles in the mid-1980s, including the No. 1 hit "Baby's Got a New Baby.” And he had charting solo hits, as well.

Thom Schuyler

As a songwriter, he penned Kenny Rogers’ Grammy-nominated, chart-topping country hit “Love Will Turn You Around,” which was named Country Song of the Year, and a dozen other Top 10 country hits, including Lacy J. Dalton’s Grammy Award-nominated “16th Avenue.”

And as head of RCA Records' Nashville division from 1992-95, Schuyler signed superstar Kenny Chesney and the band Lonestar, and had a significant role in launching the careers of Martina McBride and Sara Evans.

Now, he'll be with some others who have had some great achievements -- superstars Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson -- when he’s inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Schuyler, 59, is among five inductees the Hall of Fame Foundation will honor at the 41st Hall of Fame Dinner on Oct. 16 in Nashville.

Other inductees besides him, Brooks and Jackson will be John Bettis, who wrote pop/country crossover hits such as The Carpenters’ “Top Of The World” and Pointer Sisters’ “Slow Hand,” and Allen Shamblin, who wrote Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and “The House That Built Me,” which won a Grammy for Miranda Lambert this year.

“These five very talented individuals are among an era of powerhouse writers and artists who propelled country music to unparalleled heights beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and also made substantial contributions to popular and rock music," foundation Chairman John Van Mol said.

"This year's inductees have greatly enhanced that reputation and are richly deserving of Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame honors."

Schuyler singing his song "16th Avenue," a hit for Lacy J. Dalton

In a telephone interview, Schuyler said, “there are sort of limited words in our lexicon to describe it, but I’m certainly honored to be included among all of the talented people who have been inducted.”

He note hall of fame inductees are chosen by industry peers and not fans.

“Just to have been recognized by the folks who I’ve lived with in this town for 35 years is very gratifying,” he said.

Despite being gone from the Lehigh Valley for 40 years, Schuyler says “I still call it home.”

His mother, Vivian, still lives in the area. His oldest brother, Dennis, retired from Bethlehem Steel, lives in Hellertown, and there are “lots of family – cousins and aunts and uncles there,” he said.

After majoring in English literature at Drexel University, Schuyler originally left Bethlehem for New York, and acted in shows there and up and down the East Coast while also singing and playing guitar at coffeehouses and bars.

He moved to Nashville in 1978 and was signed to the publishing company of country star Eddie Rabbitt. His songs were recorded by Rabbitt, Tanya Tucker and Levon Helm, but it was when Rogers recorded “Love Will Turn You Around” in 1980 that Schuyler started to find big-time success.

After Dalton’s “16th Avenue” in 1983 (the song, about struggling songwriters, has since become the unofficial anthem of Music Row’s songwriting community), Schuyler recorded a solo disc, ”Brave Heart,” that produced two Top 50 country singles in 1983.

He performed at Musikfest in 1984.

Then, in 1986, he formed the trio S-K-O, which charted seven singles in the mid-1980s, including the No. 1 hit "Baby's Got a New Baby."

“A Little More Love,” a song he wrote with fellow S-K-O member J. Fred Knobloch, was recorded by Rogers for the USA For Africa project in the mid 1980s.

Schuyler later became an artist and repertoire, or A&R, executive for RCA Records, and eventually the label’s Nashville division from 1992 to 1995. In that role he signed singer Chesney and Lonestar and worked with McBride and Evans.

In 1994, he again played Musikfest, and gave perhaps a glimpse of his future by performing "Musical Meditations," based on song cycles he wrote about people and events in the Bible.

He also served terms as chairman, then president, of the Country Music Association in early 1990s.

“Once I had, by the grace of god, established myself in the business here, I tried to do my part in looking after it,” Schuyler said.

He’s now Youth Minister at Woodmont Christian Church in Nashville and is an adjunct songwriting instructor at Belmont University. He often is often credited as a founder of Nashville’s popular “in the round” style of songwriter showcases at the Bluebird Café’ in Nashville.

Later his song “Point of Light,” as recorded by Randy Travis, was the theme song for President George H.W. Bush’s volunteerism campaign.

Schuyler has received three Songwriter of the Year nominations from The Nashville Songwriters Association and before being chosen for hall of fame induction this year was a five-time nominee.

Ten years ago, acclaimed pianist/conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn opened Lafayette College’s 2001 season on Sept. 12 with an all-Beethoven recital, only one day after the Sept.11 attacks. Tonight at the Williams Center, Solzhenitsyn observed the 10th anniversary of that horror with a return engagement, this time with an all-Schumann program.

Solzhenitsyn prefaced his powerful recital with some brief but powerful words. “It bothers me to keep hearing about ‘the tragedy of 9/11,’” he said. “This is no tragedy...this was an act of unmitigated barbarism.”

Following the punch of this sobering and sincerely-delivered sentiment was a comforting and gently played transcription of Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze,” from Cantata 208, followed by a moment of silence.

Then came Solzhenitsyn’s main program: two works by Robert Schumann, his Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, and Kreisleriana, Op. 16.

Each of these works is a form of psychological music-drama, with multiple contrasting sections recalling the two imaginary characters of Schumann’s inner vision, Florestan and Eusebius. Davidsbündlertänze (Dances of the League of David) is the quirkier of the two, with 18 unnamed sections wildly ranging from the agitated to the serene.

Although unmarked in the program notes, the dreamy and wandering sections are usually marked as being composed by “E” for Eusebius, while the more impulsive and exuberant ones are marked by “F” for Florestan.

Solzhenitsyn conveyed this dualism splendidly, diving into the “Lebhaft” (lively) sections of Davidsbündlertänze with raw energy, then quickly pulling back into introspection and constraint for those marked “Einfach” (frugal). He took Schumann’s “Mit Humor” notations quite literally, coaxing lusty laughter, chuckles, and grins from the keys. While not really dances, many sections evoked the dizzying twirling of an impossibly fast waltz or furiant, and like any fast dance, there were some slight missteps in the more rapid parts.

Kreisleriana, a work in 8 parts, was the more fluidly performed and more polished of the two pieces. Solzhenitsyn’s carefully voiced alternation between the fantastic and the lyrical, the grotesque and the loving, was especially evident here. He slashed into the wild and diabolical opening section “Ausserst bewegt” (Extremely moving) like a knife, then tenderly nursed his way through “Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch” (Very inwardly and not to quickly). The finale section, “Schnell und spielend” (Fast and playful), was wonderfully schizophrenic, seemingly being played in two tempos at once: the right hand friskily moving in one tempo while the left hand slowly moved in another, slightly out of sync.

Schumann’s struggle with his dual alter egos, at least for this reviewer, seemed an especially apt theme for a concert observing such an horrific event. These pieces, as invigorating and as filled with humor as they are, seem to speak to us in two conflicting voices. Our inner Florestan remains steeped in anger and rage, while our Eusebius strives for tolerance and trust. Schumann’s demons eventually destroyed him; hopefully, great performances of great music such as this will keep them from destroying us.

Todd Rundgren has visited the Lehigh Valley many times, but last Saturday night he finally played the venue he deserves, as he opened the 15th anniversary season of Lehigh University’s Zoellner Center.

File photo

With streaked hair, and dressed in black except for his tennis shoes, Rundgren said, “This was called a greatest hits show. If that were true, it would only be 20 minutes long.” Only a few of his songs over the years have gotten heavy radio play, but a concert of great Rundgren works would last many hours.

Over the years, Rundgren has explored experimental and improvisational music, sometimes with elaborate sets and costumes. On this tour, he is content with revisiting his most popular work, in many cases going back to the 1970s. He did many of his ballads, including “Love Is The Answer” and “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference,” given a bit of a rocking edge by his band.

He was backed by long time associates Jesse Gress on guitar (who received appreciative applause for being a former Bethlehem resident), keyboardist John Ferenzik, drummer Prairie Prince, and bassist Kasim Sulton. All but Prince did backup vocals throughout the evening.

Rundgren only played guitar on a handful of songs, and no piano. He enjoyed being a vocal front man, at times walking back and forth while singing, and at others sitting on a stool at center stage. He often chatted to the crowd, and even did a repeating comedy bit where the band came in too soon as he counted off the beginnings of songs.

His only song from his last CD was “Kind Hearted Woman,” from his tribute to Delta bluesman Robert Johnson on “Todd Rundgren’s Johnson.” The often anti-commercial Rundgren admitted onstage he had toured to promote the CD two years before it was released, saying, “Ballsy or stupid – you call it.”

A surprise in the middle of the show was a medley of soul music covers, including “I’m So Proud,” “La La Means I Love You,” and “Baby Baby.” Rundgren gave dramatic and convincing renditions, with convincing growls and a powerful falsetto.

By the encore of an extended “Hello It’s Me,” and “The Dream Goes on Forever,” Rundgren’s speaking voice was shredded (he had a cold), but his singing voice seemed barely affected.

The enthusiasm from his full house of fans must have helped get him through the two hour show, giving them a chance to repay him for all the years of wonderful music he has given them.

Berks County native Taylor Swift again was the obvious Lehigh Valley connection when nominations for the 45th annual Country Music Association Awards were announced last week.

Swift topped all nominees with five, including Entertainer of the Year, and could take home a sixth award for her album “Speak Now” wins Album of the Year, which she produced.

But the Lehigh Valley again showed its country music pedigree, as several nominees have been through the area recently.

Taylor Swift

Sugarland, who had a triumphant show Sept. 2 at Allentown Fair (my choice as the fair’s best concert this year), are nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year. Chris Young, who will play Allentown’s Crocodile Rock Café on Nov. 5, was nominated for Best New Artist.

Lady Antebellum, who played a headline show at the fair last year, were nominated for Vocal Group of the Year, as were Little Big Town, who opened for Sugartown at the fair this year. Steel Magnolia, who in December played the Cat County Jingle Jam at Stroudsburg’s Sherman Theater, are nominated for Vocal Duo.

Keith Urban, also played a headline show at the fair last year, was nominated Entertainer of the Year, as well as Male Vocalist of the Year. Martina McBride, who played a headline show at Musikfest last year, is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year.

And The Band Perry, who played a free show at Starters Riverport in Bethlehem in July 2010 – when it received its first nomination – this year are nominated for four awards: Vocal Group of the Year, New Artist, Single for “If I Die Young” and Music Video of the Year for “If I Die Young.” In addition, lead singer Kimberly Perry got a solo nomination for writing “If I Die Young,” nominated for Song of the Year.

The 45th Annual CMA Awards, with Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood hosting for the fourth year, will be broadcast live from Nashville from 8-11 p.m. Nov. 9 on ABC-TV.

Swift was nominated for Entertainer, Female Vocalist, Album for “Speak Now,” and Music Video and and Song of the Year for “Mean,” written by Swift, her first nomination as a songwriter.

Swift won the Horizon Award in 2007 and two years later was named Entertainer of the Year (2009).

Other nominated for five awards are Jason Aldean, Paisley and Blake Shelton. Others with four are Zac Brown Band, whose members Coy Bowles and Zac Brown also got solo nods as songwriters.

Aldean last played the Lehigh Valley at Allentown Fair in 2006, with Miranda Lambert.

CMA’s reigning Entertainer of the Year, Paisley was also nominated for Male Vocalist; Album for “This is Country Music,” and Musical Event and Music Video of the Year for “Old Alabama.” Paisley’s nominations keep him in the No. 3 spot for the most career nominations in CMA Awards history. He has been nominated every year since 2000 and has 57 career nominations Only George Strait (81) and Alan Jackson (80) have more.

Paisley last played the area at Allentown Fair in 2009

Rounding out the Entertainer of the Year category with Swift, Urban and Paisley are Aldean and Shelton. Urban won the trophy in 2005 and Male Vocalist in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Four-time CMA Entertainer of the Year Kenny Chesney got three nominations: Male Vocalist and Musical Event and Music Video of the Year for “You and Tequila.”

Co-host Underwood received her sixth nomination for Female Vocalist in 2011. Underwood won Female Vocalist of the Year in 2006, 2007, and 2008. If Underwood wins the Female Vocalist of the Year trophy again, it will tie her with McBride (1999, 2002-2004) and Reba McEntire (1984-1987) for most wins in the category.

Lambert got a second nomination along with Sheryl Crow and Loretta Lynn for Musical Event of the Year for their performance of the classic “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

More than 700 people – 710 to be exact – crowded into the Musikfest Café tonight for the first Levitt Pavilion fundraising concert. Bringing them in was the 42-year-old musical institution Blood Sweat & Tears.

The concert was intended to judge the public’s support for the concert series at the free outdoor venue at SteelStacks and Levitt Pavilion director Olga Negron said she felt the love. She said the community showed its support all summer by attending concerts and putting money into donation buckets. And this concert – which was moved inside the ArtsQuest Center because the Levitt lawn was soaked from recent rains – was the final show of support, she said.

Or it could be that a lot of folks just wanted to see the group and thought it was worth the $25-$200 ticket price. They were an enthusiastic crowd – cheering often, singing along and on their feet dancing at the end. For some, it was indeed a party.

Old groups are a good bet for these kind of shows. Fans love to hear the old hits, almost no matter who is performing them. In the case of Blood, Sweat & Tears, none of the members are from the original group. Blood Sweat & Tears has had more than a hundred members over the years. Guitarist Dave Gellis and trumpet player Teddy Mulet have been players for more than a quarter century. Jason Paige -- brand new as a lead singer – has quite a resume, from Broadway, as a backup singer for Michael Jackson and Liza Minelli and currently as the singer of the Pokemon theme song. Blood, Sweat & Tears is kind of like a tribute group, but it does lay claim to the name Blood, Sweat & Tears.

The concert was all over the musical map – going from rock to pop to jazz fusion to an odd cover of The Talking Head’s “Burning Down the House” as the first encore number. But that’s the legacy of the group. It was started in 1967 as a group that merged rock, blues and pop with lots of horns and jazz, but fooled around with lots of styles as leaders and members came and went over the years.

My favorite parts of the concert were the instrumental numbers -- jazz fusion in style. The nine-member group includes a bass player, keyboard player, drummer, guitarist and four prominent horn players. They are indeed top notch.

Bass player Greg Foote -- identified as being from the Poconos – strutted his skill on a piece by Jaco Pastorius, who played with the group briefly in the mid-1970s. And Foote’s wife, Debbie, joined to sing a powerful rendition of “God Bless the Child,” which morphed into a salsa at the end.

Paige has solid vocals but his charismatic frontman persona nd rock/funk style seems out of character with the sophisticated music that makes Blood, Sweat & Tears legendary.

My favorite number of his was the final one – “You Made Me So Very Happy.” The relatively quiet song revealed the subtleties in Paige’s voice.

But the crowd seemed to love it all – from hits such as “Hi De Ho,” “Spinning Wheel” and “And When I Die,” to songs Paige said the group was trying out, such as David Foster’s “Nothing You Can Do About It.”

Controversial painted-face rap-metal duo Insane Clown Posse, which caused concern when they took the stage at Allentown’s Crocodile Rock Café in December 2009, two months after two of its avid followers beat a man to death, are coming back to Croc Rock – sort of.

Insane Clown Posse

Both members of the group -- Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope -- will play Croc Rock on Oct. 14, but they won’t be playing as Insane Clown Posse.

They’ll be part of the five-member supergroup Dark Lotus, which also includes both members of horrorcore hip-hop duo Twiztid – Jamie Madrox and Monoxide Child – and orrorcore gangsta rap artist Blaze Ya Dead Homie.

The supergroup first formed to release its first album, “Tales from the Lotus Pod,” in 2001. It since has released two more discs – “Black Rain” in 2004 and “The Opaque Brotherhood” in 2008. A new album is said to be in the works for release this year.

The supergroup’s music has been described as a mixture of "dub, goth, metal, shock rock and hip-hop, with a WWF announcer's delivery and shuffling stoner beats thrown in for good measure," with much of its lyrics revolving around the occult.

The last time Insane Clown Posse played Croc Rock, the club hired extra police security for the show, which drew more than 1,000 people for a near sell-out show.

That concert came less than three months after four men who identified themselves as Juggalos – followers of Insane Clown Posse – were charged with using baseball bats to beat to death a fifth Juggalo in Schuylkill County.

All four pleaded guilty and by last November had been sentenced to 20 to 47 years in prison.

The Croc Rock show produced only minor incidents normally associated with packed shows, and actually was very entertaining, with an elaborate, very entertaining stage show, a good third of the crowd in clown makeup and the band’s members constantly spraying the crowd with Faygo soda – a band trademark.

Tickets for the show went on sale Friday. They are $20 in advance at www.crocodilerockcafe.com, by calling 610-434-4600 or at the box office at the club, 520 W. Hamilton St., Allentown. Tickets will be $22 at the door.

Tickets to the Inaugural Blast Furnace Blues Festival, Sept. 16-18 at ArtsQuest’s SteelStacks campus in Bethlehem next week will be sold buy-one-get-one-free Saturday at the ArtsQuest Center, officials just announced.

The offer will be good on single-day or all-festival passes for the three-day festival, but not on special VIP festival packages or children’s tickets, said Mark Demko, ArtsQuest’s editorial services director.

Buckwheat Zydeco

All-festival passes are $55 in advance and single-day passes are $25 for Friday and $30 for Saturday or Sunday.

The offer will be available only in person at the ArtsQuest Center box office, which opens at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, and not online or by phone.

The offer will coincide with Saturday’s concert by Blood Sweat & Tears — the only fund-raiser this year for the campus’s Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks. Originally to be held at the pavilion, the Blood Sweat & Tears show will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday inside the ArtsQuest Center’s Musikfest Café.

Tickets for Blood Sweat & Tears are $25 (general admission without seats) to $200 (with a special cocktail party, dinner and meet & greet with the band, as well as a VIP reserved seat at the performance).

The blues festival will feature Grammy Award winner Buckwheat Zydeco and nearly 40 other international, national and local blues acts. The festival has partnered with Michael Cloeren Productions, which for 20 years produced the former Pocono Blues Festival at Big Boulder Ski Area and the new Pennsylvania Blues Festival at Blue Mountain Ski Area for the new event, which will feature four stages.

For the third year in a row, Lehigh Valley Music Awards had a record number of nominations, with 3,775 nods for artists and industry people in 68 categories.

That’s an increase of more than 10 percent over the 3,418 nominations receive last year, which was a whopping 70-percent increase over 2009. In all, there were 275 business nominations for 30 industry awards (six more than last year) and 3,143 nominations for 38 fan categories (five more than last year).

The month-long nomination process ended Aug. 29.

“I’m thrilled to death with it,” said awards Director Gloria Domina. “It is amazing. It’s the fans. They love their musicians.”

Voting started Tuesday, and within the first 24 hours, 1,000 votes already had been cast, Domina said. By that time last year, just 400 had been cast, she said. That prompted Domina to predict last year’s record total of 4,000 votes also will fall before voting concludes Oct. 7.

“There are so many new bands and new musicians that I know this will be the biggest year ever, Domina said.

The top 10 nominees in each category appear on the voting ballot. It’s also still possible to vote by write-in, and awards officials noted that write-ins have won awards in the past.

The awards will be handed out at the 13th annual ceremony Dec. 4 at Musikfest Café at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in south Bethlehem. Tickets, $15 in advance, are available at www.lehighvalleymusicawards.org/LVMA_Donations.htm. Tickets, if available, will be $20 at the door.

Domina said there also was a record number of requests – 151 -- to perform at the awards ceremony (the deadline for requests has passed). That’s up 12 percent from last year. “We got a great response,” she said.

The awards’ board of directors will decide Sept. 13 who will perform.

Domina said the awards show will be “more of an awards ceremony this year” rather than the performance showcase it has been in previous years – indicating fewer performances than the 19 it had last year.

She said its target length will be three hours instead of the four to five hours of previous years. “We want to make sure the bands that go on at the end still have an audience,” she said.

Special award recipients this year have already been announced.

Steve Walker will receive the annual Founder's award. Walker, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, teacher and audio technician, conducts a songwriting workshop at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem and for more than 30 years has performed solo and with his band Born Cross-Eyed.

Directors Awards will go to singer Bev Conklin of BC Combo, Val Minett and Ami Lanning of Listen Live Music in Zionsville, photographer Diane Richter and performers Janet Palleria and Kevin Mackie.

Allentown’s Mayfair festival, which for a decade has struggled with faltering finances, has abruptly broken ties with its executive director and his assistant after May’s 25th annual festival, and canceled a Christian music fest this month that was to have broadened its base to help it weather hard times.

Terry Glennon (center) at cake-cutting ceremony to celebrate Mayfair's 25th year in May

Terry Glennon, who has been at Mayfair’s helm for six annual festivals, is no longer with the organization, said Debra Schur, vice president of Mayfair’s board of directors. Shur said an assistant to Glennon, whom she declined to identify, also has left, but said she “was not at liberty” to give further details.

Schur would not say whether Glennon was fired or left voluntarily, but said “a lot of things led up” to the separation. She referred further questions to board President Mike Hill, who was on vacation. Efforts to reach Hill for comment were unsuccessful.

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski said he was told the board is looking to restructure and “go in a different direction” with the festival, but was not told details.

Glennon, the festival’s ninth director, did not respond to a telephone messages seeking comment.

No one answered the telephone at Mayfair’s offices Thursday.

Faith Evangelical Free Church of Trexlertown, where the FallOut festival was to be held Sept. 24 with some of the top names in contemporary Christian music, sent an email to its congregation Tuesday, saying the festival was canceled because of “a combination of events … with Mayfair.”

“Their annual event Mayfair Festival of the Arts held over the Memorial Day weekend was not nearly as successful as in the past, and has left them in a poor financial situation,” the e-mail said. “Mayfair has also gone through significant staffing departures over the past four weeks and this coupled with the challenging financial position has led Mayfair to cancel Fallout for this year.”

The five-day, rain-or-shine, Memorial Day weekend festival in Allentown’s Cedar Beach ended with lower attendance than the 50,000 average it had seen in the past five years after a heavy storm closed its opening night early, and it faced competition from the new SteelStacks entertainment complex in South Bethlehem.

But since Glennon took over in 2005, the festival had gone from being $260,000 in debt -- organizers held a news conference in late 2005 to say the festival was unlikely to have a 20th year -- to being $15,000 in debt and anticipating being debt free after this year.

But Pawlowski said that while he didn’t know specifics of Glennon’s departure, he didn’t think the changes were primarily financial.

“They told me that they’re looking to restructure the organization,” Pawlowski said. “My hope is that the board will restructure quickly and move into the direction it wants to run the organization. It’s critical for the city and I want to see it be successful – move to greater heights and greater attendance.”

Glennon, a former project manager for AT&T in Bedminster, N.J., with no professional experience with the arts, was hired three months before the 2006 festival — a year after Mayfair made the controversial decision to put a chain link fence around the festival and began to charge $5-per-person admission.

Mayfair had just lost $200,000 on an outside culinary event, and also had lost its fourth executive director in three years.

Glennon said that at the time, Mayfair was “essentially insolvent,” with so little money that it couldn't even pay its staff. In his first month, he said, the festival missed its payroll for the only time in its history.

Glennon had said to maintain that stability, Mayfair would have to grow and have multiple locations, as it once did, with activities in the city's other parks. Its largest concerts will have to be ticketed, and held at sites other than Cedar Beach.

And he believed Mayfair had to become a multi-event organization, with offerings at other times of the year, perhaps even outside Allentown.

That was the idea behind Mayfair taking over FallOut, which from 1998 to 2006 attracted upward of 4,000 people and some of the biggest names in contemporary Christian music to Faith Evangelical Free Church but had not been held in the past four years.

Glennon said Mayfair's sponsors initially were skeptical about FallOut, but he assured them it wasn’t likely to lose money and would bring precisely the incremental growth Mayfair seeks.

The Blood Sweat & Tears concert Sept. 10 at Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks — the venue’s single major fundraiser for the year — will be moved into the Musikfest Café because of anticipated heavy rain, ArtsQuest has announced.

Blood Sweat & Tears

The gated, ticketed show will be the inaugural Levitt Pavilion Benefit Concert to raise money to support the more than 50 free concerts the venue offers throughout the summer.

The Levitt Foundation, which funded construction of the pavilion and established an endowment for its programs, requires its administrators hold at least one fund-raising concert a year, as well has hold “bucket collections” at the other shows to demonstrate community support of the program.

Tickets for the concert are available at www.levittsteelstacks.org and 610-332-3378. Tickets are $25, $50, $150 and $200. The $200 tickets, which are very limited, include a special cocktail party, dinner and meet-and-greet with the band, as well as a VIP reserved seat at the performance.

The $150 tickets include the cocktail party, dinner and VIP reserved seat at the concert; $50 tickets include a reserved seat at the show. General admission tickets (without seats) are $25.

Pavilion Executive Director Olga Negron said he fund-raising concert and bucket collections are something the Levitt Foundation “feels very strong about. That, for them, is saying, ‘is the community really supporting this” Do they appreciate it.’”

The band started in 1967 and had its greatest success in 1969, when three of its songs — "You've Made Me So Very Happy," "Spinning Wheel" and "And When I Die" all hit No. 2 on the Billboard chart. “Spinning Wheel” also won a Grammy Award that year.

Known for fusing rock, jazz, R&B and other genres, the band was distinguished by its horn section.

It sold millions of albums, had 10 Grammy Award nominations and won three, including Album of the Year.

Good news for those “American Idol” hopefuls out there who couldn’t bring yourselves to drive to Charleston, S.C., or Pittsburgh for auditions this year.

Bad news for those of your who already did.

The crowd at 'American Idol' auditions at IZOD Center in New Jersey last year

“American Idol" has added an audition session Sept. 22 at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., where it has held auditions the past two years.

In 2010, at least two Lehigh Valley residents — Kim Bydlon, 17, and Tim Harakal, 24, both of Whitehall Township —were among about 200 to move on to the next round out of 17,000 who showed up for the auditions. There were at least 18 audtioners from the Lehigh Valley.

Both were eliminated in second-round tryouts.

If you are from the general Lehigh Valley area and are going to audition, please contact me at johnjmoser@gmail.com or 610-820-6722 with your name and a telephone number to reach you. I'm interested in doing a story on the auditions.

The IZOD auditions will be the last stop on the nationwide search for the show’s Season 11. Auditions already were held in St. Louis; Portland, Ore.; San Diego; Pittsburgh; Charleston; Denver and Houston.

Season 11 will debut 10-11 p.m. Jan. 22 on Fox-TV.

Men and women ages 15-28 years old as of June 26, who are eligible to work in the United States are eligible for the auditions.

After registering at the website, people who want to audition must pick up a wristband between 7 a.m. Sept. 20 and 5 a.m. Sept. 22. But those who sign up on the day of the auditions to register can’t be promised the show won’t run out of space or time to accommodate you. Registration does not guarantee you the opportunity to audition.

Auditioners will not be permitted to camp out. Once auditioners get a wristband, they will be asked to return to IZOD Center by 5 a.m. Sept. 22.

Auditioners must have two forms of ID that show proof of your age and a photograph (for example, a birth certificate and driver's license or a birth certificate and a passport or a birth certificate and a school ID card) to get a wristband.

You will be allowed to have one person accompany you to the audition, but that person must be present during registration so they also can get a wristband. No one under age 5 will be allowed at the auditions.

Anyone under 18 on the day you register must have a parent or legal guardian with you during registration.

Because of the mandatory evacuation of parts of Wilkes-Barre, the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts will close its doors at noon today, the venue just announced.

The next scheduled show at the venue is Saturday: Joe Nardone’s Doo Wop, Vol. 3. The show features Jay Siegel & the Tokens, The Dubs, La La Brooks (lead vocalist of The Crystals), Larry Chance and The Earls and Kenny Vance and The Planotones.

Information on the concert and the time of Kirby’s reopening will be posted to www.kirbycenter.org as soon as it becomes available, the center says.

Emergency officials have ordered everyone out of the flood area from heavy rains by 4 p.m.

Tickets, at $20 advance, will go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Sept. 10.

But you can buy them before they go on sale this morning. Here’s how:

Before 10 a.m. Friday, go to TicketMaster here: http://bit.ly/rsjbqP and in the “Internet presale” area of the box office, enter the password ATBAB (not case sensitive).

That will let you buy the tickets. Please note that Crocodile Rock is general admission standing, meaning buying tickets early does not guarantee you a spot closer to the stage. It only means you won’t miss getting a ticket if (when) the show sells out.

Owl City (real name: Adam Young) gave an absolutely great show at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia on June 25 that was symphonic, relentlessly uplifting and offered unflagging optimism.

In a 100-minute, 21-song show in which he was backed by a five-person band, his lyrics were witty, interesting, touching and intelligent, and conveyed a real message – something rarely found in virtually any form of music today.

It was among my favorite shows this year.

The songs were equally divided between his platinum 2009 major label debut “Ocean Eyes” and “All things Bright and Beautiful,” released June 14. The new album hot No. 6 on Billboard’s albums chart, higher than the No. 8 peak of “Ocean Eyes.”

The 159th Great Allentown Fair is now three days in the rear view mirror — enough time for its six headline concerts to have settled into my memory for a clear assessment.

And ranking.

A couple of quick notes: Despite having two sold-out shows (Sugarland and Big Time Rush), the total ticket sales for the fair’s headliners — 44,689 — were off very slightly from last year, when the fair had one sellout (Justin Bieber), but another that almost sold out (Rush).

This year’s totals were tempered by just 2,850 for the 3 Doors Down and Carnival of Madness Tour.

Sugarland: Allentown Fair's best show this year

But the average show had an attendance of 7,457 – more than the top-selling show at Musikfest. So it was a good year for attendance.

It also was a good year for shows. Sugarland was a pleasant surprise for me. Bruno Mars was very enjoyable. None were on the level of Weezer last year or my favorite all-time fair show, blink-182 in 2001, but they were good.

One last thing: Even in dense crowds at the shows, fair security kept all of the aisles open and discreetly prevented people from unfairly blocking the view of others while not interfering with people having a good time. All of the things Musikfest did wrong at the new SteelStage.

So here’s how I rank the fair’s shows this year. Please note that I did not see Marc Anthony but I spoke to my colleague who did, Milton Carrero, as well as others who saw the show, and am relying on their expert opinions.

1. Sugarland

— Just three weeks after narrowly missing a stage collapse that killed seven people at the Indiana State Fair, the hit country duo that was building up its audience, not only giving a triumphant performance, but setting a fair record for reserved-seat attendance (10,641). Half of the 18 songs that filled the 85-minute show could have been the highlight at any other concert. Indeed, the duo played last year’s chart-topping, double-platinum hit “Stuck Like Glue” as the night’s second song, and the set list was full of others that were better. But most of Sugarland’s music is country in name only, with songs that wouldn’t have been out of place on mainstream pop/rock radio.

2. Marc Anthony — Anthony might not have had luck in his marriages, but at the grandstand, he experienced the unconditional love of more than 4,000 fans, who welcomed him with nostalgia and joy. He also commanded control of the band several times during the night and fed off their energy — as the band got stronger, his performance grew.

3. Bruno Mars — In a day when popular music artists such as Lady Gaga try fill their work with dark, controversial messages and compete to outdo each other with huge stage spectacles, Bruno Mars proved on the fair’s opening night that a show is far better when it’s simply entertaining and fun. With nothing more than an eight-man band and a good voice – and some hard work in the James Brown style of entertaining – Mars pleased a crowd.

5. Journey/Foreigner/Night Ranger — There are two ways to look at the concert that 1970s and ‘80s groups Journey, Foreigner and Night Ranger had: You could spend the night disappointed that Journey lead singer Arnel Pineda isn’t original singer Steve Perry, or that Foreigner singer Kelly Hansen isn’t original singer Lou Gramm, or you could enjoy the good show they still put on. No, it wasn’t as good as back in the day — in fact, Foreigner had no original members on stage — but it was enjoyable.

6. Big Time Rush — Here’s why Big Time Rush’s sold-out show was successful: It satisfied its intended crowd of Nickelodeon TV’s target audience of ages 7 to 17 with energy, fantasy, sensitivity and connectivity. It was short, at just over an hour, and most of its songs were better for TV than for concerts, but they made the crowd happy.

6. 3 Doors Down/Carnival of Madness — A mixed bag of rocks. Headliner 3 Doors Down certainly was a rock act, and a pretty good one, at that. Theory of a Deadman were a disappointment, contrived and formulaic. The others — Alter Bridge, Black Stone Cherry, Adelitas Way and Emphatic — were mostly good. The fact that this was the fair’s weakest show indicated how strong its lineup was.

Vince Gill has had a long and storied instrumental career, starting with playing in Boone Creek with Ricky Skaggs and as lead singer for the country-rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s.

But it was in 1982, when he went solo, that Gill made his biggest mark in music. He won 20 Grammy Awards in 18 years — more than any other male country artist — had 46 Top 40 country singles, sold 25 million albums and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

At 54, he’s become sort of an icon, appearing on other artists’ records and in interesting projects. His first disc of new material in more than five years, “Guitar Singer,” is due Oct. 6.

Elliot Yamin finished third on perhaps the weirdest year of “American Idol” — 2006, when Taylor Hicks won (!) and Daughtry was voted off in fourth place.

Hicks has bombed and second-place Katharine McPhee is acting, but it’s been Yamin that had musical success. He had a platinum, Top 5 hit with “Wait For You” in 2007, and in 2009 charted with “Fight For Love” and had a Top 3 adult contemporary hit with “Can't Keep on Loving You (From a Distance).”

In February, Yamin released a third studio album, “Gather 'Round,” exclusively in Japan. He was supposed to be on the diabetes fund-raiser show Sept. 10 with “Idol” runner-up Crystal Bowersox at Stabler Arena, but it was canceled.

The Lehigh Valley philanthropic organization We Rock was started by Matt Metal, an on-air personality on radio station WXLV-FM, 90.3 back in 2007 as a way to blend his interest in local music while supporting his community.

Five years later, We Rock continues, and will celebrate its half-decade mark with a show to benefit Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Breast Health Services.

Over eight hours, it will feature The Cherry Bombs, The Damn Dirty Apes, Slik Helvetika, Ambergris, The Bank Street Band of School of Rock-Easton, Social Call, Jade Scott of Type 14 and DJ Hollywood. There also will be food and drink.

Kempton Music Festival presents Pinnacle Jam will have its inaugural festival this weekend on two stages over two days that will offer 11 performances of americana, blues, bluegrass, newgrass, jam rock, and straight up rock and roll on two covered stages with pavilions — plus a couple of acoustic campfire jam sessions.

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.